Photographing our Seas: Whale Sharks and Mudskippers

Photographing our Seas: Whale Sharks and Mudskippers

Unbeknownst to many, the Middle East is home to some of the world's most remarkable marine ecosystems. But amid photographing juvenile whale sharks and fantastical mudskippers, National Geographic photographer Thomas Peschak comes across a devastating shark-meat trade.

The National Geographic Live series brings thought-provoking presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, photographers, and performing artists right to you. Each presentation is filmed in front of a live audience at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. New clips air every Monday.

This is the Great Bear Rain forest. This is a place on the British
Columbia, Canada coastline. And this is one of those unique places where you
can be sitting in a boat and you look at the land and you can watch a bear and
a wolf on the beach and you look around and there's a humpback whale and orca
in the water. This is one of those incredible rare locations where a wild
landscape still meets the wild ocean. Those places have largely been relegated into
the history books. This is also the only place in the world where humpback
whales sing on their feeding grounds. And this is what their songs sound like.

So, I first went to the Great Bear Rainforest in 2010 on an
expedition organized by the International League of Conservation Photographers to
document the bio-diversity of this area. Why? Well, because tragically there
was a proposal to put an oil pipeline that runs from the Alberta Oil Sands all
the way to the Pacific Ocean and then have large supertankers travelling
through these sort of remote fjords and channels to take the oil to Asia. And
the Gitga'at First Nation, who are the local stewards of this coastline had invited
us to help them try to raise awareness of that realm. It's a rough coastline,
it's not a place for tankers. And in my mind, you know it's not a question of
if it's a question of when a spill will occur if these tankers do move into
that area. It's just this incredible, incredible wild place. Published in 2011-2012,
and, uh that was not the end of it for me. I was hooked by this place. I think
I went back three seasons in a row, on my own. Working with local NGOs and the
Gitga'at First Nation's. And for me the terrestrial realm had been documented
very well. But the underwater world, by and large, was completely unknown. So,
I went there to try to, you know really create a exhaustive portfolio of life
in the seas of the Great Bear Rainforest.

This is the cradle of kelp evolution. Nowhere else on Earth
are there that many species of kelp. It's a cold, it's a nutrient rich sea. Highest
diversity of starfish in temperate waters. This is a Sunflower Starfish. They
grow to this sort of size. They are the largest shallow water starfish in the
world. You know, three-four kilos, incredible predators. But for me, the one species
that screamed out pulsating life were jellyfish. And in the right months of the
year, in the fjords they aggregate in incredible numbers to spawn. Smacks of
jellyfish, that I just learnt a few years ago. It's not schools, it's a smack. This
is basically me, I've turned the camera around on myself and I'm now trying to basically
swim into the densest part of the jellyfish school. Don't ask me why. It's
just, it's just one of those things. They are caressing me. I'm being tickled
by jellyfish. I think I get a little jellyfish hat now. There you go. I've got
a cap there. Water is cold, it's four, five degrees. Every hour I climb on the
boat with my elbows because I can't feel my hands or my legs. I kind of just,
you know, like a seal of shimmy out of the boat. I have this hot water hose in my
wetsuit for 10-15 minutes lying on the swim platform, like you know, crying and
shivering. And I do it three or four times a day, you sleep-really, really,
really, well on.

In the Great Bear Rainforest the one species that is more important
than any other if there can be such a thing, is a salmon. Now once a year these
fish abandon their life in the ocean and they move in-shore and they swim up
rivers to spawn. I arrive at this one pool, right below a waterfall and I found
this little side chamber this little sort of nook in the corner and I kind of
wedged myself in there and I waited. Five minutes, ten minutes, 20 minutes, 30
minutes. I think it was about 45 minutes later that one fish came back. And
then another one came back and then I just waited like a, you know, I couldn't move
anyway, I was too cold so I wasn't going to scare them. And then I got. So, all
these fish just kind of huddled together waiting to pretty much take on these mighty,
mighty waterfalls.

I also, though, wanted an image that illustrated the
connection that a lot of the wildlife has with these salmon. And I had dreamt
up this picture of a split-level. Which is half underwater, half above water. Underwater
you have the salmon, and above you have a bear with the salmon in its mouth. And
the waterfall flowing by with a rainbow running diagonally across the frame. I
sketched my pictures and that's what I sketched. Very rarely do I get my sketches,
but, you know, dream big. And fail spectacularly. Anyway, black bear expert
fisherman. He's waiting, he's waiting and he has got one. I watched this bear
for hours, he had this technique. And once he gets one, he walks up into the
forest, eats and every 15 minutes, he comes back down he gets hungry again. He
gets another one. He disappears and now he comes back. In the meantime, I snuck
into the water. And he's just not sure. You know, this is bear snorkeling 101. The
bear can smell you even if you're in the water. Something I learned. I'm trying
my best, I'm sneaking up to this bear. I can see the salmon underwater. I have
this picture in my head and I try and I try...Every time I get past this little
area right about now he spots me. “He was like, I got you! I see you, you damn
National Geographic photographer!” And it's just like, and I go “Okay, fine, I
give up, man, alright, alright.” Plan-B. If I can't get a picture of a bear and
a salmon, let me get a picture of a salmon leaping from the bear's perspective.
And I have timed this. I have 15 minutes before the bear comes back. So, I sit
where the bear sits. And I got pummeled with salmon. And you know, I had
bruises. But again I'm more worried about flash placement. Every time I place
the flash they hit the flash again. And so, complete disastrous, disastrous mix
of things. And it's like the shotgun, they come in waves. Bang, bang, bang,
bang, bang! And there's one frame that I kind of like, and it kind of, sort of,
you know, connects...I wanted a picture that connects the salmon with the
forest. And this is what I got. Salmon
in the trees, I call it.

Photographing our Seas: Whale Sharks and Mudskippers

Unbeknownst to many, the Middle East is home to some of the world's most remarkable marine ecosystems. But amid photographing juvenile whale sharks and fantastical mudskippers, National Geographic photographer Thomas Peschak comes across a devastating shark-meat trade.

The National Geographic Live series brings thought-provoking presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, photographers, and performing artists right to you. Each presentation is filmed in front of a live audience at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. New clips air every Monday.